The Pentagon is reportedly poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy equipment for up to 5,000 US troops in Eastern European and the Baltic countries. It says the move is to reassure its NATO allies.

According to the New York Times citing American and allied
officials, the equipment would be stored in each of the three
Baltic nations: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as well as Poland,
Romania, Bulgaria and possibly Hungary.

The move, if it is approved, would be the most serious deployment
of military hardware in Europe since the end of the Cold War;
although the plan falls short of a permanent presence of boots on
the ground.

After NATO initially expanded into the Baltic States in 2004, the
permanent stationing of equipment and troops in these countries
was avoided so as to consider Russia’s interests.

However, as a result of the Ukraine crisis, NATO and the US have
decided to bolster forces in the region, which they say is to
send a clear message to the Russian government that NATO will
defend its alliance members.

“This is a very meaningful shift in policy. It provides a
reasonable level of reassurance to jittery allies, although
nothing is as good as troops stationed full-time on the ground,
of course,” James G. Stavridis, a retired admiral and the
former supreme allied commander of NATO, who is now dean of the
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, told
The New York Times.

The stocks of heavy weapons would be enough to equip a brigade of
about 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers and is about the same as the
Pentagon kept in Kuwait after the 1990 invasion of Iraq.

But the proposal still has some way to go before it becomes a
reality, and requires approval from Defense Secretary Ashton B.
Carter and the White House.

It has also stirred concern among some NATO allies about the
wisdom of the plan and Russian reaction to the deployment.

Senior officials from some of NATO’s new members had recently
requested in a letter to the alliance that US troops should also
be stationed on their territory.

“We need the prepositioned equipment because if something
happens, we’ll need additional armaments, equipment and
ammunition. If something happens, we can’t wait days or weeks for
more equipment. We need to react immediately,” said Raimonds
Vejonis, Latvia’s defense minister, who will become Latvia’s
president in July.

Mark Galeotti, a professor at New York University, who has
written extensively on the military and security services in
Russia was quoted by the New York Times as saying “Tanks on
the ground, even if they haven’t people in them, make for a
significant marker.”

A Pentagon spokesman however insisted that no decision had been
made about the relocation of US military equipment.

"The US military continues to review the best location to
store these materials in consultation with our allies,"
Colonel Steve Warren said in a statement on Saturday. “Over
the last few years, the United States military has increased the
prepositioning of equipment for training and exercises with our
NATO allies and partners… At this time, we have made no decision
about if or when to move to this equipment.”

Since Crimea’s reunion
with Russia and Kiev began its military operation to quell unrest
in the east of Ukraine last spring, NATO forces have stepped up
military exercises along Russia’s border – in the Baltic States
and Eastern Europe.

Last week, the Russian President Vladimir Putin once again
reiterated that Russia is not an aggressor and is not building up
its offensive military capabilities overseas, but is only
responding to security threats caused by US and NATO military
expansion on its borders.

“I think that only an insane person and only in a dream can
imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I think some
countries are simply taking advantage of people’s fears with
regards to Russia,” Putin told the Italian newspaper Il
Corriere della Sera.

However, Moscow has on numerous occasions spoken out against a
NATO build-up on its western borders, saying that such moves
threaten Russian security and creates instability in the region.